The present invention relates generally to structuring, correcting, and formatting speech recognized text.
Today's speech recognition technology enables a computer to transcribe spoken words into computer recognized text equivalents. Speech recognition is the process of converting an acoustic signal, captured by a transductive element, such as a microphone or a telephone, to a set of words. These words can be used for numerous applications including data entry and word processing. The development of speech recognition technology has traditionally focused on accurate speech recognition, which has been a formidable task due to the wide variety of pronunciations, individual accents, and speech characteristics of individual speakers. Today's leading speech recognition software includes features for continuously learning the vocabulary and grammar of specific users.
Even with this improved speech recognition software, a transcriber or correctionist is often still necessary to correct mistakes. Additionally, a transcriber plays an important role in formatting the outputted text into a pre-determined structured format. Formatting speech recognized text into formatted reports is common in many professions that rely on dictation to maximize efficiency, such as is found in the medical professions. Currently, a transcriber will review and correct the unstructured text, create headings, format certain text, and cut and paste different sections of text in order to create the desired report format. This additional formatting work provides longer transcription times and reduced productivity, thereby mitigating the benefits of speech recognition. What is needed is a system for simplifying this process of structuring and formatting speech recognized text.